Keith Emerson

Keith Emerson was, to me, a revolutionary of the keyboard. Born in Todmorden, he fused classical music with rock so audaciously, first with the Nice and then with Emerson, Lake and Palmer, that prog would be unthinkable without him. The image of him stabbing knives into a Hammond organ or wrestling a Moog into submission still electrifies. His 2010 Frankfurt Music Prize acknowledged a talent where virtuosity and wildness coexisted in a way few have matched. His death in 2016 was a real loss. As a lover of progressive rock, I hold a permanent, undimmed respect for the man and his fearless invention.

Name (English)

Keith Emerson

Name (Japanese)

キース・エマーソン

Reading

きーす・えまーそん

Born

November 2, 1944 – March 11, 2016

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Monkey

Origin

Todmorden, United Kingdom

Occupation

composer / musician / keyboardist / film score composer / recording artist

Awards & achievements

• 2010 Frankfurter Musikpreis

• Official sitehttp://www.keithemerson.com/
• Xhttps://x.com/keith_n_emerson
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith%20Emerson
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A8%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q319751

Tags

• composer
• musician
• keyboardist

Last updated

2026-06-17

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.